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Verman posted:Lol at a quick first glance I thought those were rats in your wall just hanging out. The opposite in fact, and I now know where all the warm spots are from the ductwork. Although I intuitively knew some of them based on the cats sleeping patterns.
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Dec 16, 2021 05:58
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AHH F/UGH posted:I am the owner of the cat piss rat turd house, go back like 15 pages or so. I am making videos of the progress which I will edit together in a supercut for all to experience/mock. I read all your posts, and my one question is - what happened to the windfall house from your first post? I.e. why did you decide to move to cat piss palace instead?
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Dec 16, 2021 06:44
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So my torsion spring in my garage broke (got it on video!) — in Seattle (so higher COL area), what is a reasonable price for replacement / service where I’m not getting taken to the cleaners? I can wait on it a bit — my car and motorcycle were outside so I don’t need emergency / weekend service. BIG TORSION has convinced me I will die if I attempt any kind of DIY. Making this more fun, the garage door is the only form of ingress / egress to the garage (no man door). I think I got the emergent release pulled to disengage the trolley from the chain drive, but this could be interesting to fix.
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Dec 16, 2021 08:06
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movax posted:So my torsion spring in my garage broke (got it on video!) 
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Dec 16, 2021 12:29
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movax posted:So my torsion spring in my garage broke (got it on video!) — in Seattle (so higher COL area), what is a reasonable price for replacement / service where I’m not getting taken to the cleaners? We paid $250 in a completely different market a few years ago. This was for 2 springs. But in a higher COL area in Today's Covid EconomyTM, who knows! Also lmao you will totally die if you try to do the springs yourself. Consider that they're storing enough energy to lift most of the weight of your garage door... the motor takes only a small portion of the load. I mean, no they're not impossible to DIY if you're careful, knowledgeable, and follow the instructions exactly. But IMO the risk is way too high considering the cost to hire someone.
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Dec 16, 2021 13:24
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movax posted:So my torsion spring in my garage broke (got it on video!) It costs $5000 without the video.  But seriously just call around to garage people, it's a whole subspecialty. They should be able to quote you over the phone. Make sure you get 3 because you need to be able to weed out lowballs who will show up and up sell, and gently caress yous who want boat payments.
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Dec 16, 2021 16:20
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H110Hawk posted:Yes to the solution (with pre and post camera run) but shop that price. That feels like emergency callout pricing not annual contract. I intended to do it anyway, but good call on the camera. Ended up being a ton of root intrusion, so they needed the camera to see and cut all that poo poo out. He didn’t even do pre/post, he just did the whole thing with the camera in so he could get every single one. 100% worth the extra $200. Luckily nothing that would result in a horribly expensive line replacement. Dude I picked was super cool and helpful. Was kinda neat seeing the whole inside of the pipe all the way to the city sewer line.
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Dec 16, 2021 17:07
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DaveSauce posted:We paid $250 in a completely different market a few years ago. This was for 2 springs. But in a higher COL area in Today's Covid EconomyTM, who knows! Yeah definitely do not DIY. One of the springs on my mom's 2-car attached garage door went while I was at her place, it shook the entire house and sounded like an explosion. We thought for sure a car had crashed into the house or something. Scared the absolute poo poo out of me. I can only imagine what that would do to a human who is actively trying to manipulate one of those springs.
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Dec 16, 2021 17:33
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Hah — I’ll export it from my UniFi setup and post it here. Definitely not going to DIY it as I like living (electrical stuff I’ll do all day, I am not nearly as mechanically inclined) — have two people showing up today to give me quotes / take a look at it. Just wondering for a ballpark if they show up and are like “OK, yeah this is like $500” vs. “This will be $2500” at which point I think I will send them along their merry way.
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Dec 16, 2021 18:04
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Sirotan posted:Yeah definitely do not DIY. One of the springs on my mom's 2-car attached garage door went while I was at her place, it shook the entire house and sounded like an explosion. We thought for sure a car had crashed into the house or something. Scared the absolute poo poo out of me. I can only imagine what that would do to a human who is actively trying to manipulate one of those springs. "Through" a human is a more apt description. Whatever it hits turns to pink mush and mist basically.
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Dec 16, 2021 18:05
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movax posted:Hah — I’ll export it from my UniFi setup and post it here. Assuming it's one spring and not two, I paid like $160 a while ago. I was shocked at how inexpensive it was. This is on Denver so definitely you would probably expect more in Seattle?
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Dec 16, 2021 18:17
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StormDrain posted:Assuming it's one spring and not two, I paid like $160 a while ago. I was shocked at how inexpensive it was. This is on Denver so definitely you would probably expect more in Seattle? That helps calibrate, thanks — I made it clear on the phone that I was not in any emergency situation / could happily wait for them to show up during normal business hours as well, so hopefully that helps out. That is also far cheaper than I thought it would be considering the time taken + truck roll cost + risk of having a tool thrown into your skull at several hundred feet per second. I think I may get both replaced anyways, considering the number of cycles we put on the door / don’t know when it was last replaced. Some days its probably 8-10+ cycles because it’s the only entrance + my shop / tools are down there and if they are estimated to be ~10,000 cycles, I can see the other one following soon afterwards.
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Dec 16, 2021 18:32
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movax posted:That helps calibrate, thanks — I made it clear on the phone that I was not in any emergency situation / could happily wait for them to show up during normal business hours as well, so hopefully that helps out. That is also far cheaper than I thought it would be considering the time taken + truck roll cost + risk of having a tool thrown into your skull at several hundred feet per second. Always do all the springs on your door, not just the one broken one.
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Dec 16, 2021 18:42
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Source4Leko posted:Always do all the springs on your door, not just the one broken one. What is being discussed is a torsion spring. It's a single spring per door horizontally across the top of the door opening. I don't think anyone even makes the old double spring parallel to the door type anymore.
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Dec 16, 2021 18:46
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Motronic posted:What is being discussed is a torsion spring. It's a single spring per door horizontally across the top of the door opening. Mine are set up that way and they're still a double spring per door, one per side at the top of the bar above the door when it's down. I also have still been told by people I trust about such things to always do both if one breaks 
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Dec 16, 2021 18:52
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Source4Leko posted:Mine are set up that way and they're still a double spring per door, one per side at the top of the bar above the door when it's down. I also have still been told by people I trust about such things to always do both if one breaks I don't think I remember seeing that kind, but yeah.....if there are two springs I can't imagine changing just one of them. That's how you get your door to constantly jam because it's not being pulled up consistently from both sides.
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Dec 16, 2021 19:03
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This is good to hear as my garage door/opener is pretty old. Also in Seattle, mid century house. Dual spring, wood door. No laser or pressure safety whatsoever. No remote opener. It functions currently but it would be nice with something a bit more modern/safe at some point. Plus a remote opener could be nice so I don't always have to go in the house to open the door.
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Dec 16, 2021 19:18
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movax posted:Hah — I’ll export it from my UniFi setup and post it here. I mean, it's not even a matter of being mechanically inclined. It's just that the sheer amount of energy involved is super dangerous. Conceptually it's simple... install the spring, bolt down one end, and twist the other end until you see the correct number of paint lines, tighten the screw. But if your hand slips while cranking it, or if you don't tighten things down well enough, it's a shitload of energy released almost instantaneously. Motronic posted:What is being discussed is a torsion spring. It's a single spring per door horizontally across the top of the door opening. Mine is a double torsion spring, house was built in 1999. I was under the impression that that's still pretty common, but obviously this is anecdotal so edit: Source4Leko posted:Always do all the springs on your door, not just the one broken one. Yes, definitely do all the springs. The other spring is not going to be too far behind, and you don't want to have to make this call again in a few months. DaveSauce fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Dec 16, 2021 |
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Dec 16, 2021 19:47
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When I closed my garage door yesterday I sat and just stared at the spring until it was done moving, all because of this thread 
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Dec 16, 2021 19:53
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pokie posted:I read all your posts, and my one question is - what happened to the windfall house from your first post? I.e. why did you decide to move to cat piss palace instead? They are one in the same. It's just that no one knew what was actually happening in the place until the dead lady's brother (and estate probater) actually got inside, at which time it was still my "windfall". I originally was just going to move in and rent it but decided to buy the place straight up before it would be put on the market because at the price offered it was a steal and then I could sell it later if needed, and I figured it couldn't be *that* bad. Today I'm going over to start patching the tub's chipped fiberglass. I'm going to just try and knock out at least one item off of that list every day as best as I can (aside from the huge things like paint and carpet). Right now the pace I'm on, it's going to be months before I can move in, so I need to start hustling on this thing.
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Dec 16, 2021 20:12
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I managed to get the garage open with the dude — the J hook was apparently installed weirdly in the past and was at a pretty stiff angle. We tried a few times, were contemplating drilling / cutting, and then I tried the opener one more time, saw the trolley actually disengage and move on my camera. I just loving yanked on the handle and the door moved! Dude helped me get it up and is now making a run to his warehouse for the proper spring. Total cost is apparently to be $550, the majority of which is the 2x springs. They’re rated for 10K cycles and carry a warranty, but it’s a warranty on a wear item so… I don’t think it’s really worth anything.
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Dec 16, 2021 20:35
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Verman posted:This is good to hear as my garage door/opener is pretty old. Also in Seattle, mid century house. Dual spring, wood door. No laser or pressure safety whatsoever. No remote opener. I have a Tailwind iq3 as the ‘smart’ part of the OG LiftMaster opener, I like it a lot. I also double-purposed the magnetic contact sensor from the Tailwind to my security system as a zone, and I have a UniFi G4 Dome watching the interior so I generally have pretty good state knowledge of if the door is open or not. The Tailwind sounds off a little klaxon / beeps if remotely actuated which is nice — inside my house, in lieu of having a regular LiftMaster opener, I use a BT smart button thing to trigger the Tailwind for remote closure because I don’t like the idea of sightlessly actuating a garage door, even with the IR / trip sensor in place — the little delay + beeps + flashing lights at least help.
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Dec 16, 2021 20:39
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What advantages do folks see in carpeted floors over wooden floors? All I can think of is sound dampening.
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Dec 17, 2021 01:03
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well that was real cool to come home to good thing I got more stain the other day! devmd01 fucked around with this message at 01:17 on Dec 17, 2021 |
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Dec 17, 2021 01:13
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pokie posted:What advantages do folks see in carpeted floors over wooden floors? All I can think of is sound dampening. Sound isolation, warmth/comfort mostly.
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Dec 17, 2021 01:19
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Verman posted:Sound isolation, warmth/comfort mostly. Also less sweeping. I'm not even talking about gross poo poo, just the random amount of misc. crap like small bits of leaves and random crumbs etc. that you just generate by being in a house. Rugs hide those and it all gets picked up when you vacuum, while any kind of wood, tile, etc. surface shows them all and requires much more frequent sweeping. Some people consider that an argument for carpets because they can just vacuum once a week or so and be fine, others think that's gross and insist on being able to see all the dirt so they can sweep it immediately. (cue five page argument about what's goonier - living in filth or living in terror of the tiniest fleck of dirt)
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Dec 17, 2021 01:41
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Cyrano4747 posted:Also less sweeping. We sweep problem areas daily (basically the kitchen and around the dining room table.) Rest of the house gets vacuumed every other week including the area rugs. The whole house is hard flooring with area rugs covering probably 60% of it. Come at me.
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Dec 17, 2021 01:49
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Cyrano4747 posted:Also less sweeping. Robot vacuum fixes this. gently caress carpet forever. I am a 100% hardwood & tile household.
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Dec 17, 2021 01:49
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You never realize how much dust and pet hair exists in your home until you have no more carpet. It comes down to "I know it's there but I can't see it" vs "I can see and feel it on the floor". They can be the same level of dirty but I've will feel more livable than the other. Personally I'm a fan of hard floors with rugs. Best of both worlds. If carpet gets dirty and stained, deep cleaning carpet is pretty involved with a steam cleaner etc. If you spill something on wood or tile, it's an easy cleanup. If you spill something on a rug, it can be cleaned or replaced. Plus with rugs, you can reposition or replace them as needed for changing trends etc. Carpet usually has a useful lifespan of 20 years or so depending on care and quality. It holds in odor so well that when moving into a new house, paint and carpet removal will make the house feel and smell infinitely better. I grew up in carpeted homes so maybe that's why I like hard surfaces.
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Dec 17, 2021 02:10
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Carpet is gross and for lesser souls.
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Dec 17, 2021 02:17
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:Robot vacuum fixes this. Except if you have any steps between rooms or high pile rugs
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Dec 17, 2021 02:22
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In my experience vacuums just don't work on carpet. I just got my old dyson one serviced and it still only picks up the loosest things. If anything is remotely stuck, I gotta get it out by hand. This is largely why i want to rip out all the rugs in my upcoming home eventually. Sorry if this is a major derail subject.
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Dec 17, 2021 02:32
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I like carpet. In my big brained opinion, a good quality carpet is absolutely what matters in terms of the general complaints that people have with carpet in general. It requires more upkeep in terms of cleanliness for sure. Vacuuming and having someone actually do carpet cleaning on some sort of a routine. Carpets get nasty as gently caress when you just skip things like vacuuming and if you're wearing your shoes around the house like some god drat bum. Invest in a good pair of house slippers if you can't stand being barefoot. Biggest caveat is if you have dog(s). Carpet and animals don't loving mix lmao. Also gently caress anyone who ever put carpet in a bathroom.
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Dec 17, 2021 02:38
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Insurrectum posted:Except if you have any steps between rooms or high pile rugs The good ones avoid high pile rugs. For anywhere that steps are an obstacle I just physically place the roomba ish dude down below the steps. Or buy multiples. Frankly it’s not about the scheduling for me, it’s the ability to just let it do it’s thing while I do other stuff.
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Dec 17, 2021 02:59
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Nice and hot piss posted:Also gently caress anyone who ever put carpet in a bathroom. My parents carpeted a bathroom with forest green carpet back in the early 90s. It was so gross because it would always get wet after a shower. I really want to ask them who made that decision.
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Dec 17, 2021 03:14
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Pilfered Pallbearers posted:The good ones avoid high pile rugs. We got a roomba and it's useless because: 1) The house has a step-down on the main floor 2) High pile rug in living room acts as a wall, unless the roomba somehow gets on it, which it then thinks is a cliff and gets stuck 3) Wife has seasonal decorations scattered around the floor in places, which the roomba knocks over (need to buy a barrier) 4) Cat has water/food dish, which roomba slams into and makes a mess (need to buy another barrier) 5) Wife doesn't trust roomba to run when we aren't in the house and awake (low WAF), so it's loud and annoying
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Dec 17, 2021 03:18
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Putting the sample furniture post here for feedback; I'm quite a newbie when it comes to buying furniture so definitely feel free to correct me on anything I have wrong: Buying furniture is a daunting affair if you're a person like me who has never bought good-quality furniture in your life. This post is designed to be a beginner's primer on what brands are potentially worth looking into as well as what to look out for when you're buying furniture. It cannot be avoided that good quality new furniture is expensive. While you can pay a lot and receive poor quality furniture, quality costs money and you generally have little chance of getting furniture that will last a long time without opening up the wallet quite a bit. That said, used furniture is always an option especially if you live in big cities, although you will have to handle logistics yourself (whether that is getting a friend to help you out, or renting a truck and professionals to do it for you). In general however I would avoid buying “soft” furniture used (e.g. mattresses, sofas) as the threat of bedbugs is always a concern. You might also consider looking into the following threads as they may also have answers you are looking for: A/T thread on mattresses, answered by somebody who works at Mattress Firm https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3813333 Interior design chat thread in HCH https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3955939 Interior design Q&A thread in HCH https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3955916 This is absolutely not a catch-all for places to read for research, there are other sites besides SA you might consider looking at such as reddit or old furniture forums. KEEP IN MIND THAT DUE TO SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES LEAD TIMES FOR FURNITURE ARE EXTREMELY LONG Woods Although furniture is an extremely broad category, wood materials are an important part of a large amount of furniture and can be largely divided into couple categories (sorted by general price, descending) Hardwoods, e.g. oak, teak, mahogany, walnut, cherry; in general hardwoods like their namesake are harder and denser than softwoods, with a pricetag to match. This also means that they are more resistant to abuse and generally last longer. Softwoods, e.g. pine, alder, fir, yew. While labeled as “soft” a large amount of construction and furniture is built with softwoods as they are cheaper and easier to work with. Veneers; not exactly a wood type, but generally a solid wood outer (hard or soft) bonded to an inside of some composite base material. More affordable and easier to maintain (if built well) MDF; generally a mass of wood fibres bound together with wax and resin. In general is stable and cheap (although if poorly constructed may warp in humid weather), but is heavy (and due to the binding process may be hazardous to cut if you ever need to do it) Fabric/Leather TBD; if you have pets/kids you may want to consider “performance” fabrics. Mattresses I will generally defer to the A/T thread as linked above as Synastren gives a lot of good advice, so I will not cover mattresses brands or details in depth here. In general, back sleepers should go for firmer mattresses, while side sleepers should go for mattresses on the softer side. Like all furniture, but especially for mattresses it is highly recommended that you try before you buy. Things to look for when buying furniture: 1. It can’t be stressed enough to try before you buy, especially for mattresses and sofas. 2. If you can, check joints; ideally they should be put together with solid Mortise and Tenon joints, or dowels. Avoid bolt-ons, screws, glue, and nails if possible. 3. Make sure to check where the materials come from and where it is assembled; if the specifications are unwilling to tell you quality may be suspect. Brands Below is a general listing of brands organized by their general price point (but not sorted within their category, and there may be some overlap as price ranges within brands can vary quite a bit depending on style and upholstery chosen). There is a separate section for stores that sell from brands. In parentheses I have a rough idea of furniture style included, consider referencing this for more detail. If I have more time later I will update the post with more information. Keep in mind your local area will have stores for local makers in your area, so check google maps or your yellow pages to find them. Ikea-tier (Couch ~$500-1000 USD): Ikea (Scandinavian) https://www.ikea.com/us/en/ Ashley’s (Traditional) https://www.ashleyfurniture.com/ Bob’s Discount Furniture (Traditional) https://www.mybobs.com/ Amazon (Amazon has a couple brands for different styles, look around) https://www.amazon.com/stores/Rivet/Furniture/page/9E38EA83-68F8-48E8-9B6E-3CFDB026DFC6 Target (mix of styles) https://www.target.com/c/furniture/-/N-5xtnr Mid-end (Couch ~$1000-3000 USD): West Elm (mix) https://www.westelm.com/ Scandinavian Designs (Scandinavian) https://scandinaviandesigns.com/ Room and Board (Modern) https://www.roomandboard.com/ Crate and Barrel (Modern) https://www.crateandbarrel.com/ CB2 (Modern) https://www.cb2.com/ Article (Modern) https://www.article.com/ Blu Dot (Modern) https://www.bludot.com/ High End (Couch ~$5000+) Design Within Reach (Herman Miller/Knoll) (Modern) https://www.dwr.com/ Ethan Allen (Traditional) https://www.ethanallen.com/ Arhaus (Traditional) https://www.arhaus.com/ Williams Sonoma (Traditional) https://www.williams-sonoma.com/shop/home-furniture/ Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams (Traditional) https://www.mgbwhome.com/ Restoration Hardware (Traditional) https://rh.com/ If you have to ask how much it costs, you can’t afford it: B&B Italia https://www.bebitalia.com/en/ Hancock and Moore http://hancockandmoore.com/ Ligne Roset https://www.ligne-roset.com/us/ Vanguard https://vanguardfurniture.com/ Molteni & C Turner https://www.molteni.it/us/ Living Divani https://livingdivani.it/en/homepage/ You may also consider buying from places that reupholster, although tend to be local; a few I have looked into: MidcenturyLA https://midcenturyla.com/ Amsterdam Modern http://amsterdammodern.com/ In addition all of the above there are often stores that resell other brands; examples are: Wayfair https://www.wayfair.com/ Hivemodern https://hivemodern.com/ HD Buttercup https://hdbuttercup.com/ Feel free to give me more things to add if necessary. RoyalScion fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Dec 17, 2021 |
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Dec 17, 2021 04:42
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Filled all the holes in the walls tonight, and filled the screw holes in the bathtub in prep for putting down the big epoxy over the whole wall and tub. There were so many loving nail holes, it's insane. She hung so much pseudointellectual decorative garbage like those stupid Bed Bath & Beyond "G A T H E R" and "Bless This House" hangables. There were probably around 75 nail holes we had to fill. Pulled the slide-in oven out from the counter - TONS of rat turds and shredded tissues that had obviously been used to make a nest *under* the oven. I'm worried that when we dig deeper and pull apart the cabinets that the oven was sitting on and expose the entire nest, we're going to find dried and burnt dead mice/rats. They were definitely enjoying a nice warm oven, I wonder if the oven enjoyed them.
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Dec 17, 2021 07:18
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RoyalScion posted:Putting the sample furniture post here for feedback; I'm quite a newbie when it comes to buying furniture so definitely feel free to correct me on anything I have wrong: I'm curious about RH specifically. I remember reading somewhere that RH furniture is actually fairly average quality, and that they don't always use things like hand tied knots/etc the same way other high end furniture makers do. May also want to add Stickley as a nationally available high end furniture maker.
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Dec 17, 2021 16:06
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TheRealReal and 1stdibs are good sources for high end used furniture
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Dec 17, 2021 16:28
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